Pew social media study: Facebook still king; Pinterest more popular than Twitter

Kids may be leaving Facebook, but that isn’t enough to take the network down from atop the social media pedestal.

A new Pew Research Center Internet Project study shows 73 percent of online U.S. adults 18 and older using some type of social network. Facebook is still king, with 71 percent of online adults on the network, up from 67 percent one year ago.

That means nearly everyone on social media is on Facebook. The 71 percent stat is more than triple the amount on competing sites like LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter and Instagram. Still, though, these social media hubs are growing quickly, and 42 percent of U.S. adults are now using at least two networks.

Pinterest saw the biggest spike in 2013, jumping from 15 percent of online adults to 21 percent while passing Twitter (18 percent) in the process. LinkedIn is second behind Facebook at 22 percent, while Instagram grew from 13 percent to 17 percent.

The study also noted that people are just as likely to check Instagram daily as they are with Facebook — that acquisition more than 18 months ago sure is looking good now, isn’t it?

A few other tidbits:

Pew found that Facebook is popular across several demographics groups, while the other sites have formed their own more specific user profiles. Women are four times more likely than men to use Pinterest, for example, and LinkedIn is more popular with college grads and high-income folk. Also, Twitter and Instagram have lots of non-white young adults from big cities using their services.

As we noted, there are 42 percent using two or more networks. Meanwhile, 36 percent say they only use one network, and 22 percent said they use none of the five networks listed. It’s key to note that Pew only included these five networks in its survey, leaving out sites like Google+ and Snapchat.

63 percent of Facebook users log-in at least once a day while 57 percent of Instagram users and 46 percent of Twitter users do the same. In addition, 35 percent of Instagram users check in multiple times a day compared to 29 percent for Twitter, which went public a few months ago.

As kids stop using Facebook so much, 45 percent of those online that are 65 and older are now on Facebook, up 10 percent from last year.

Taylor Soper is a GeekWire staff reporter who covers a wide variety of tech assignments, including emerging startups in Seattle and Portland, the sharing economy and the intersection of technology and sports. Follow him @taylor_soper and email taylor@geekwire.com.

Comments

derp

From the report: “% of adults …”
From the article: “Kids may be leaving …”

derp

Taylor Soper

Hi derp,

You’re right — the report is a survey of those 18 and older (adults). I made the “kids” reference because many pundits believe Facebook is going downhill due to teens leaving the service. So, I thought this study kind of pointed to the fact that Facebook is actually doing OK for itself in the big picture, despite the fact that teens may be losing interest.

Completely agree with you Taylor that it’s going to take more than kids leaving Facebook to stop it being number 1. I only use Facebook and Twitter and personally have no intention of using anything else. Facebook has become so popular amongst the older generations too (I think they’re more addicted than the rest of us)!